Art Gallery

THE YERING STATION ART GALLERY FEATURES THE WORK OF BOTH ESTABLISHED AND EMERGING ARTISTS IN AN ENVIRONMENT THAT CAPTURES THE SYNERGY BETWEEN FINE WINE AND THE ARTS

Yering Station Art Gallery

Yering Station’s historic winery building (circa 1859) with its rustic charm, high ceilings and white painted, hand-made brick walls, operates as both a tasting room and a contemporary art gallery. Exhibitions are located in the Main Gallery on the ground floor and in the more intimate First Floor Gallery, with exhibitions rotating every four to six weeks.

The Yering Station Art Gallery is committed to exhibiting the work of both established and emerging Australian artists, while the annual Yarra Valley Arts/Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition & Awards, which runs from late October through to early December, has a long history of showcasing an outstanding cross section of contemporary Australian sculptural practice.

All commissions from sales associated with Yering Station’s Arts Program are donated to LARCH: The Leukaemia Auxiliary of the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Current Exhibition / Main Gallery

23 February – 8 April

Steve Freestone — High Blue / Middle Orange: The West MacDonnell Ranges and the Centre

Oasis (Ellery Creek), Oil on Canvas, 91 x 121cm

High Blue / Middle Orange: the West McDonnell Ranges and the Centre is the third exhibition in a tetralogy that began with Flinders Ranges (2013), Kakadu and Kimberley (2018) and will conclude with Karajini Gorges and Kalbarri in the years ahead.

While Diebenkorn employed colour to draw viewers toward the horizon, Hans Hofmann painted internally generated light that appears to emerge from within the image itself. Incorporating these tendencies, Freestone recreates the emotional impact of viewing the original landscape, while using a suite of contrasting elements to heighten subtle intensities: broad energetic strokes run alongside finer detailed strokes, order and harmony stand in opposition to chaos and discord, poetry wrestles with concept, form writhes in folds of space, while opposing yet complementary hues produce a frisson of vibrating energy across the field of view.

Freestone graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994 majoring in painting and photography after which he completed a Post Graduate Degree in painting and a Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of Melbourne. Following on from a number of solo and group exhibitions, Freestone held an art teaching position at Upper Yarra Secondary College and then taught in the Fine Arts Department of Yarra Valley Grammar for seventeen years, during which time he served as Head of the Fine Arts Department, coordinated the Certificate IV in Art and Design and was the school’s RTO Manager. He is now a full time artist and works out of his studio in Warburton in the Upper Yarra Valley.

Artist Statement: In my photography of Victoria’s Highland forests, I seek to capture those stillest hours, when no words are spoken. Such moments tell my own story and somehow express my efforts to better understand the forests that cover the dramatic blue-rimmed skyline surrounding Melbourne, the Yarra Valley and beyond.

Through photography, I strive to create new connections enabling a heightened appreciation of our unique forest ecosystems, which I hope will lead to more enlightened conservation outcomes.

My photographs are printed on Arches Velin archival quality cotton paper and framed in hand crafted recycled timber. Commission from the sale of my framed photographs will be donated to the Leukaemia Auxiliary of the Royal Children’s Hospital and to funding research towards the protection of Victoria’s critically endangered Mountain Ash forests.

I sincerely wish to acknowledge the Wurundjeri, Taungurung and Gunaikurnai peoples, upon whose land my photographs were taken. Their longstanding close relationship with country (a legacy spanning many thousands of years) has shaped these forests and made them what they are. For us to continue enjoying Victoria’s highland forests into the future, it is imperative that we learn from their wise stewardship.

The Yarra Valley Arts / Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition & Awards is the result of a collaboration between Yarra Valley Arts, a not for profit organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural lives of Yarra Valley residents and visitors, and Yering Station, a premier winery in the Yarra Valley region of Victoria with an arts program encompassing painting, photography and sculpture.

The exhibition has grown steadily since October 2001 and is now an iconic event on the Victorian arts calendar attracting strong interstate interest. It is respected for its consistency and longevity and its ability to annually showcase a cross section of contemporary Australian sculptural practice from both established and emerging artists.

Staged across dramatic landscaped gardens designed by Michael McCoy, the exhibition provides ample opportunities for the installation of outdoor sculpture, while the long indoor corridors and breezeways offer indoor and sheltered spaces. Finalists are encouraged to select a site which best presents their work.

Dr Ewen Jarvis, Curator of the Yering Station Art Gallery and the annual Yarra Valley Arts / Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition & Awards, is a writer and practicing artist with both academic and arts administration experience.

The sculpture exhibition takes a 30% commission on art sales, 20% of which is donated to Yering Station’s preferred charity LARCH (Leukaemia Auxiliary of the Royal Children’s Hospital), while 10% goes to Yarra Valley Arts towards the promotion of arts across the region.

The sculpture exhibition is supported by long term sponsors who share the vision and aims of the exhibition: to foster the growth of contemporary Australian sculpture. Arnold Bloch Leibler – lawyers and advisors, Yarra Ranges Council, Workforce Extensions, and RACV Healesville have been particularly strong in their support of the exhibition.

We are also supported by a substantial list of current and former judges and mentors in the arts community who have been part of our selection panel and assist us in continually growing the exhibition’s profile.

Contact Details

For further information please contact Dr Ewen Jarvis / Curator:

T (03) 9730 0102 E artgallery@yering.com

Membership is for Australian residents only who are over 18 years old. Under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998 it is an offence to supply alcohol to a person under the age of 18 years (Penalty exceeds $7,000) • For a person under the age of 18 years to purchase or receive liquor. (Penalty exceeds $500) Licence No.6220086033